1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for providing programming guides to users, and in particular, to a system and method for providing a program guide having search parameter-aware thumbnails.
2. Description of the Related Art
The dissemination and playback of media programs has undergone substantial changes in the past decade. Previously, media programs were disseminated either by analog broadcast (conventional, satellite, or cable) or by dissemination of films to movie theaters.
These traditional dissemination and playback means remain in use after the advent of digital technology. However, digital technologies have had a profound effect on the dissemination and playback of media programs.
First, digital technology permitted the use of digital video recorders (DVRs). DVRs, while similar in function to standard analog video cassette recorders (VCRs), provide a number of additional useful functions including live pause, the ability to record one program while playing back another, and the integration of the electronic program guides with DVR functionality (so that the recordation of media programs could be scheduled far in advance).
Second, technology also permitted the dissemination and playback of media programs via the Internet, and with improved signal processing and more and more households with high-speed Internet access (e.g. DSL, fiber, satellite), this method of dissemination and playback has become competitive with traditional means. Dissemination of media programs via the Internet may occur either by simple downloading, progressive downloading or streaming.
For progressive download, a media file having the media program is downloaded via the Internet using dial-up, DSL, ADSL, cable, T1, or other high speed internet connections. Simple downloading downloads the bytes of the media file in any convenient order, while progressive download downloads bytes at the beginning of a file and continues downloading the file sequentially and consecutively until the last byte. At any particular time during progressive downloading, portions of the file are not immediately available for playback. In some situations, the entire file must be downloaded first before a media player can start playback. In other situations, media players are able to start playback once enough of the beginning of the file has downloaded, however, the media player must download enough information to support some form of playback before playback can occur. Playback is often delayed by slow Internet connections and is also often choppy and/or contains a high likelihood of stopping after only a few seconds. Downloaded material is thereafter stored on the end-user computer.
Streaming delivers media content continuously to a media player and media playback occurs simultaneously. The end-user is capable of playing the media immediately upon delivery by the content provider. Traditional streaming techniques originate from a single provider delivering a stream of data to a set of end-users. High bandwidths and central processing unit (CPU) power are required to deliver a single stream to a large audience, and the required bandwidth of the provider increases as the number of end-users increases.
Unlike progressive downloading, streaming media is delivered on-demand or live. Wherein progressive download requires downloading the entire file or downloading enough of the entire file to start playback at the beginning, streaming enables immediate playback at any point within the file. End-users may skip through the media file to start playback or change playback to any point in the media file. Hence, the end-user does not need to wait for the file to progressively download. Typically, streaming media is typically delivered from a few dedicated servers having high bandwidth capabilities.
On-demand streaming media services allow a broad spectrum of media programs to be made available to the user for immediate viewing. One of the challenges in providing on-demand streaming media services is to provide the user with an interface that allows the user to efficiently select which media program they would like to view. In the golden era of broadcast television, a small number of channels were available, and it was a simple matter for the user to simply check each channel or refer to a printed guide. The advent of satellite or cable television multiplied the number of such channels, and provided program guides similar to the printed schedules. However, the number of channels was still relatively limited. The storage capacity of DVRs is such that simple hierarchical menu interfaces permit the user to easily and quickly gain access to recorded programs. However, in the case of streaming video, the number of available media programs is virtually boundless. This raises the very real problem of how to provide useful program information about a very large number of media programs.
One way to provide the user with information about available media programs is to make use of metadata associated with the media programs. Such metadata may include factors such as the source of the media program, actors, genre (drama, comedy), target age group, and/or one or more thumbnails (small still video frames of the media program) of the media program. This metadata can then be used to assist the user in searching for the media program of interest or to assist the media program disseminator to organize the media programs in a way that conveniently allows the user to find the media program of interest.
A typical response to a search for media programs involving a particular performer (e.g. actor or actress), is to provide a textural list of such programs, along with other relevant information. The list may or may not include thumbnails of frames of the media program as well. Such thumbnails are typically a title page (showing the title of the media program) or a frame of the media program that is randomly chosen.
However, when responding to a search for media programs, thumbnails that show the title of the program or randomly chosen frames do not provide the user with useful information. What is far more useful in such instances is providing a thumbnail that is related to the search parameter that was provided. For example, if the user searches for media programs that have a particular actor, it is desirable for the program guide to present thumbnails that include a depiction of that performer. It would also be desirable for the program guide to present dynamically generated video clips that include a depiction of the performer.
Further, often, the user is interested not only in finding a particular program, but an object in a scene from a particular program. For example, the user may be interested in finding a media program in which a particular actor is portrayed in a particular scene.
Media program searches are provided in existing systems such as those available from GOOGLE and YOUTUBE. Such systems accept keyword searches, search media program metadata to identify media programs that may include images of the searched keywords. However, for each video provided in response to the search, the thumbnail that is provided is the same regardless of the search parameters or their values. For example, a search for the actress Meg Ryan may return a number of thumbnails, each representing a media program (and many of them only short clips) in which Meg Ryan is depicted. However, the thumbnail that is presented for each media program file is the same, regardless of the search parameter provided. That is because while each media program file may include metadata having the term “Meg Ryan,” (indicating that Meg Ryan is depicted in at least part of the media program file), there is no metadata associated with individual frames of the media program file (indicating that she is depicted in the frame), nor does the metadata for the media program file indicate the frame(s) in which Meg Ryan is depicted.
For example, in the prior art, a particular media program file “When_Harry_Met_Sally” may include metadata describing the actors appearing in the media program, and those actors may include “Meg Ryan” and “Billy Crystal.” The media program file “When_Harry_Met_Sally” may also be associated with a thumbnail image of one of the video frames that depicts the actress Meg Ryan. In such a case, when the user performs a keyword search using an “performer” search parameter having “Meg Ryan” as the value, the media program file “When_Harry_Met_Sally” may be presented, along with a thumbnail of a video frame that depicts the actress Meg Ryan. However, if the user were to perform a keyword search using the “performer” search parameter having the value “Billy Crystal”, the user would be presented with the same program file “When_Harry_Met_Sally”, but the associated thumbnail would still depict the same video frame (that is, of Meg Ryan, not Billy Crystal). The user might also be presented with a different media program file (e.g. another media program file of “When_Harry_Met_Sally” in which the associated thumbnail depicts Billy Crystal), but the thumbnail associated with the same media program file would still depict Meg Ryan, not Billy Crystal. Hence, the user is not presented with a “search aware” or “search responsive” thumbnail in which the thumbnail presented for a particular media program file depends on the value of the search parameter.
Randomly selected frames of the media program file may provide little or no information about the media program of interest, and may misrepresent its content. The thumbnail may also include an image that is not appropriate for general dissemination (e.g. an adult video). What is needed is a method and apparatus that provides search term-aware thumbnails of media program files. The present invention satisfies that need.